ARTIST CREATES A NEW TAKE ON PRESERVING FAMILY HISTORIES

Allan Mardons work has become a popular alternative to traditional family portraits. The artists signature style is a narrative technique that weaves many vignettes on a canvas to tell a complete story. The colorful, primitive style is similar to techniques used on classic medieval tapestries and murals.

Allan Mardon tells stories. But hes not a writer -- Mardons a painter.

Revitalizing a classic narrative technique similar to medieval tapestries, Mardon creates works of art that tell the history of families. Using what has been called "a fascinating primitive, naïve" style, Mardon creates a mosaic of vignettes that combine to tell a central story. The vignettes transcend space and time. They can combine landscapes from two or more family homes thousands of miles apart, show persons both as children and adults, illustrate cherished pets from long ago and even convey plans for the future.

"Man has recorded his life as art from the earliest times," said Mardon. "Prehistoric cave paintings, Egyptian murals, and medieval tapestries all illustrate the lives of their subjects with passion and detail that words can never duplicate."

Exhaustive research provides the base for each commissioned work. Mardon interviews family members and records important highlights and events. He collects photographs and tours homes, businesses and other key settings for the family. All the research is cataloged and compiled into a reference for the painting.

"The whole experience of being involved with Allan -- from the moment I first called him, as a complete stranger, to the moment I uncrated 'Golden Spike -- was for me a delight," said Peter Mosse, a New York patron who commissioned Mardon to paint about his passion -- the railroads. "Allans tremendous artistic talent speaks for itself. But what I also saw first hand were his diligence in researching the story and his desire for perfection."

Heroic-sized archival-quality canvases provide the foundations to the paintings. Custom frames are hand painted to become an integral part of the work and often display ornamental metalwork and inlays. Every care is taken to ensure the long life of the painting.

In his studio in the historic Barrio of Tucson, Mardon creates his massive canvases for both custom commissions and public galleries. His noncommissioned work usually explores the history, beauty and spirituality of North American indigenous cultures of bygone times, and Southwestern landscapes inspired by the desert. His paintings are in private, corporate and public collections across the world, including the Harry S. Truman Library, TIME Magazine, and the Ontario Gallery of Art. His works have been shown in galleries and museums across the country including Fenn Gallery, Santa Fe, N.M.; Vanier Fine Arts, Scottsdale, Ariz.; Art Concepts Gallery, Kirkland and Tacoma, Wash.; the Meyer Gallery, Jackson, Wyo.; and the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyo.

Mardon has concentrated full-time on his fine art career since 1988, after decades as a successful freelance illustrator. His work was a staple of Sports Illustrated and TIME magazines. He created posters to promote the Olympics, the NBA and new stamps for the United States Postal Service. A graduate of the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, he completed post-graduate studies at the University of Edinburgh and the Slade School of Art at the University of London.

For more information about Allan Mardon and his work go to www.allanmardon.com.